My dad was in the Cavalry his first tour in the Army - he trained the Army mules and the Polo Ponies at Ft. Robinson. He got out and taught riding at a Military Academy in Virginia for about a year, then reenlisted at the start of WWII.
You can probably guess he was a difficult task master teaching me to ride :) and to care for a horse and tack.
How cool! I'll bet he could ride like the dickens.
Speaking of the Army and the Cavalry, did you ever see that Don Johnson movie about the last days of the Cavalry, when they were disposing of the horses and they told them to take the horses out and shoot them and this group of soldiers wouldn't do it and basically went AWOL and took off cross country for Canada with the whole string? I can't remember the name of it, but it was really good. I'll have to see if I can find out what I was.